Block OneDrive and SharePoint for groups

[sammentions]

Hello,

Were currently exploring Microsoft E3 

Is it possible to Block access to OneDrive and SharePoint for groups/users without effecting Microsoft Teams for desktops and mobile devices? I'm also referring prevent users from saving documents through office pro plus to sharepoint / OneDrive.

thanks

[#2]

No. SharePoint is an a core component to Teams for it's file storage on channels. OneDrive you can technically not assign licenses to users, but they will get errors in Teams if they try to Share a document in a chat as it relies on the user having OneDrive.

[#3]

Hello@sammentions!

Technically, yes you CAN block SharePoint and OneDrive for users and still have Teams. 

This is done by simply not assigning them licenses for these services

However, I dont suggest that you do that. 
SharePoint is a vital part in Teams, its the main storage location for all the files you share, OneDrive as well. 

If you disable SharePoint and OneDrive, you will basically just be able to do chat. Thats not using Team to its full potential and power :) 

When it comes to restricting sync, you can restrict filetypes and what devices can sync using the OneDrive client. 

Kind Regards
Oliwer 

[#4]

@oliwer_sundgren 

Thanks for your response.

Blocking sharepoint and onedrive would be temporary , keeping it active for the IT department to spend some time to get a better understanding of it.

I did try removing the license, but was still able to save documents from word and excel to one drive. 

After some poking around I found I can create a device profile in intune which would block synchronizing one drive and hide the options in office pro plus to be able save to any sharepoint locations. But this is just for the desktops. So still trying to figure out how to do this on mobile devices.

Regards

Sam

[#5]

@oliwer_sundgren SharePoint does not respect licensing -- it only hides the SharePoint tile from the App Launcher.

I suppose you could do this through Azure Conditional Access Policies...

[#6]

@Trevor Seward 

"SharePoint does not respect licensing -- it only hides the SharePoint tile from the App Launcher."

That's my experience too. I want to roll out Office 365 Pro+ but we currently use fileshares and, initially at least, do not want users from saving anything to Sharepoint and Onedrive. However, I've not found a way to do this. In addition to the issue you describe (i.e. still allowing saving to Sharepoint / Onedrive even though it's not shown in the app launcher), it also uses Onedrive and Sharepoint as the default save location in Word, Excel, etc - even when Pro+ has been installed using an XML configuration script whcih specifies a local save location. That part of the install script seems to be completely ignored.

Also worth noting that Onedrive and Sharepoint are a single licensing option, so it's not possible to turn one off without the other (and in any case it's still possible to save to them even if the license is turned off for the user).

We would also like to use Teams, but the integrations with Sharepoint and Onedrive are too fundamental for it to be possible at the moment, so we are having to stick with Skype for Business.

It's all very frustrating - the Office 365 services, and particualrly the integration between locally-installed Pro+ programs and the cloudy services - are designed to force you to work in the way Microsoft wants, with little flexibility. If this doesn't fit with how your organisation wants to operate you have a serious problem, with no obvious solution.

[#7]

@Chris Webb Actually it removes the paperclip icon from the interface so that you cannot share files anymore, so at least no errors!